Something Cool for Hot Summer Days

Carol has discovered that staying cool is easier with ice.  She is experiencing that time of life women used to talk about in whispered conversations.  Now it is often discussed on talk shows and the news.  With all this talk you might think some scientist would have found a real answer.  Not so!  At least not for her.  The hormone replacement therapy helps, but she still has extreme hot flashes with major sweating. 

We think immediately of drinking something cold.  Good idea, but not enough.  Carol has discovered that it takes ice in her mouth to do the trick.  A Popsicle, a slush, or ice cream give her temporary relief.

You can buy Popsicle forms, but small paper cups with sticks for handles do pretty well.  You might have to wait for the contents to get almost hard before you insert the stick.  Purchased ones will allow you to put the sticks in at the beginning.

You can use fruit juice, flavored drink mix, soda, yogurt, or flavored gelatin to create your treats.  All of these will work as frozen treats and all of them will give you the effect of cooling your core temperature.  Of course, if you want to sneak in a little extra nutrition, the juice and yogurt are hits. 

Kitchen Gizmos and Gadgets

I have addressed this blog to people who don't cook much or who want to make it easy, so this entry may seem oddly placed.  I am not recommending that you buy all the gizmos and gadgets in the store.  You really want the drawer to be free of clutter and the cabinet to be clear of dusty equipment.

Let's list the things you might really need.

• Sissors or kitchen shears.  They are good for trimming flower stems, opening plastic packages, and cutting meat into smaller portions.
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• Potato peeler, also good for peeling carrots and eggplant.  If you really never intend to cook vegetables that need peeling, you can do without this, but it is far superior to using a paring knife for these tasks.
• There are several kinds of can openers that will serve your needs.  I don't recommend an electric one unless your have a disability that restricts the use of your hands.  I like the one that removes the lid without leaving a sharp edge.
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• There are lots of graters available.  I prefer a small flat one that does not take up lots of space in the drawer.  Think about what you will grate on it, then choose the one that looks like it would do that.

• Spatula's are a special case:  There are spatulas for turning pancakes and eggs,; spatulas for scraping batter out of bowls; spatulas for spreading cake icing; and spatulas for beating dough.  Which spatula you will need depends on which of these activities you do.  A large spoon is a good substitute in a pinch.

Again, try to visualize what you need this thing for, how will it help you, and where will you store it?  You might decide you can buy a frozen dinner and save the trouble, but sometimes home cooking is a real survival skill.  See where cooking fits into your life.

My Other Tip for Weight Control

My other suggestion is activity.  If you use up some of the calories, they don't set up housekeeping on your hips.  I am not a big exeercise guru.  I don't like to go to the gym.  I have done it, but it was a drag.

You don't really have to use all that fancy equipment or pay money monthly or hire a trainer.  You can buy a calorie counter that tells you how many calories you are using by walking, swimming, or biking.  It may help you to get a grip on what you can expect in losing weight, or at least controling it.  A good counter will use half the book to list the calories in the food and the other half to list the activities and how many calories they use up.

Think about the places you go and the activities you do.  If you go to the grocery store, you are walking.  It is not power walking; it is more akin to a leisurely stroll, but if you do it for two hours of shopping, it counts.  The power walking might be only 15 or 20 minutes, but it is more beneficial for strengthening your heart. 

Other activities can be incorporated into your secret training.  When you dust tall furniture, be sure to stretch, and repeat the stretches twice--one to get the dust, and one to feel your muscles.  When you do things that have repeated motions like mopping and sweeping, stand tall and practice good posture.

If you sit at a computer, be sure to get up often and stretch, walk around, touch your toes--keep the blood flowing and the muscles limber. 

Walk up the stairs instead of using the elevator.  Park at the back of the parking lot.  Walk to the park or the church every chance you get.  The main thing you need to remember is to find chances to stretch, exercise, and strengthen your large muscles.  They are the ones that use the most calories.  Arms, legs, and back muscles are big and use lots of calories.  Fingers and eyelids don't use that many calories, so typing may not be as beneficial to your weight control as jogging.  (I hate jogging.)

Weight control is a balance of eating and exercising.  If you use up the calories you eat, your weight will remain constant.  If you use a little more than you eat, you will lose slowly.  If you eat a lot more than you use, you will gain quickly.  If you don't change your eating habits and eat the same amount, a small increase in activity will bring your weight down slowly over a long time.  It's a good plan.  Try it.

A Few Old Fashioned Tips for Weight Control

Controlling your weight is a constant guilt trip for most of us.  If it's not your weight, it's a question of whether you are getting all the right nutrients.  Fast food is so easy--just make a trip through the drive-through and dinner is done.  But...did you think about the fat in those fries?  Did you really need that big a burger?  My tips are mostly concentrated on thinking about what you are eating and how much is enough.

1. When you are at home, use a small plate.  If the plate is full, you feel more satisfied.
2. Cultivate a taste for raw vegetables.  They are filling, they take more time to eat, and they are low in calories.  You can buy baby carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower in small packages ready to eat.
3. If you use dip, make sure it is non-fat.
4. Baked potatoes are filling and nutritious, but you have to be careful about the butter, cheese, and bacon bits.  Stick to non-fat sour cream and chives.
5. Snacking is a good way to control calorie intake.  Eat a small meal.  Of course you will be hungry soon, but you can use the veggies.  If you are really hungry add a piece of fruit.  It does have more calories than the veggies, but it's still a low calorie treat.  A cup of raw broccoli is about 25 calories and a peach or apple is about 40.
6. If you have a craving for fried chicken, eat a large salad first.  One piece may be all you want.
7. With desserts the key is portion size.  Split a dessert with a friend or your husband or take it home for later.  You don't need dessert every meal.  Make it a real treat.

If you learn to apply some of the tips one at a time, you may begin to think is smaller portions and servings.  After a while, you don't feel deprived or insulted when someone says "Is that all you want?"  And you feel great when they say how much weight you have lost.

Is Your Weight Bugging You?

Image via WikipediaThe question of weight is always important.  Every year headlines proclaim we are weighing more and getting fatter, but all the diets and weight loss products and exercise programs don't do much to change that.  Maybe what we need is a good famine, well, maybe just a temporary fast.

The real key to living a lighter life is a matter of what you can do and stay with it.  Buy less oil, butter, and products that contain fat.  Fat has more than twice as many calories as protein and carbohydrates per gram.  Calories from fat add up fast.  Use fat products judiciously.  I don't say not to use them at all.  Some parts of your system need fat.  Skin, the digestive tract, and several other systems need some fat, but its the excess that adds the pounds.

Vegetables are the category that lots of people neglect, but they carry lots of nutrients and without many calories.  If you are trying to lose weight without feeling hungry, use vegetables as a base to build your menu on.  You can eat them raw in salads or steamed, sauteed, or baked.  You can even add a small amount of fat because some nutrients like Vitamin A in things like carrots need the fat to process.  As much as I admire Julia Child and Paula Deen, you can have too much butter.

Ordinarily carbohydrates provide most of the calories.  Cereal based foods are the easy ones to get your calories from.  In addition to calories, the cereal products, including, of course, bread, give you the B-complex vitamins and other nutrients you need daily.  Diets that limit or restrict them have to be carefully designed to make sure you get the nutrients you need.

If you want to get on a diet, make your own.  Get a good book with a chart of the nutrients and calories.  Choose a wide variety of foods and make sure you buy the best and most economical products.  This is time consuming, but remember, it is for your health.  I guess I think it is foolish to entrust it to some guru who is skinny and athletic when you don't fit his or her profile. 

Bread for Texture and Aroma

Image via WikipediaNothing fills the house with aroma like bread.  The odor is both appetizing and comforting.  The texture fills your mouth in the same way with satisfying texture and substance.  I make it sometimes just to give away.  Well, I make two loaves and give one away.

If you are not as eager to create the bread, but you would like to enjoy the rewards, use these tricks:

• Bread from a bakery that has never been stored in plastic still has its characteristic crust.
• Heating a slice in the microwave for 10 seconds or less enhances the flavor
• Toasting in the oven recovers some of the feel of fresh baked.
• French bread from the grocery store in a plastic bag no longer has its crusty texture.  Remove it from the bag and heat it in the oven on a cookie sheet or directly in the rack until the crust is restored.  You probably can't do this but one or two times since the loaf will become too dry.

I still love the plain old white bread in the plastic bag for sandwiches.  With butter and garlic salt, it will do to make croutons, or with milk and eggs and sugar, it doesn't do badly for bread pudding.  It's good with peanut butter, too.  But if you want to do more with bread, think outside the plastic bag.

If you really want to read my recipe for making bread, I have made it available for you.  You don't have to actually make it, to be informed about how its done.  Impress your non-baking friends with you insight and knowledge. 

http://hubpages.com/hub/Homemade-Bread-An-Adventure-for-the-Soul

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